Impact of Climatic Change on Avian Populations: Implication for Long Term Conservation in Wildlife Genetic Resources

Abstract

Climate change is a multidimensional challenged on bird population indirectly. Wildlife species are not equally at risk when facing climate change. Several species-specific attributes have been identified as increasing species vulnerability to climate change, including diets, migratory strategy, main habitat types and ecological specialization. Conservationists mostly used small number of species as surrogates to help them tackle conservation problems. Having served as reliable indicators of environmental change for centuries, bird populations now indicate that global warming have set in motion as a powerful chain of effects in ecosystems worldwide. The effect of climate change on the variation of species distribution is a matter of conservation emphasis globally. Successful management and conservation of species and their respective habitat dilemma under climate change rely on our ability to model species-habitat interaction and predict species distribution under changing environmental condition. We realize birds every day and they contribute much to our personal lives through attracting public attention. Beyond their aesthetic, cultural and ecological values, activities associated with birds. Everywhere birds are an integral part of our natural ecosystems. Birds pollinate plants and disperse their seeds, thereby facilitating genetic exchange and seed germination. They can serve as sensitive ecological indicators of threats to environmental health. Habitat loss, highway expansion, environmental unfriendly infrastructures, pollution and climate change have already led bird species becoming listed as threatened or endangered under the endangered species act. Climate change will almost certainly cause more species to be added to these lists, as well as exacerbate the challenges rare, threatened and endangered species already face. Moreover, large contractions in the range of many currently common and widespread species are expected.